Above an exclusive video look at the epic ostrich chase with SPI VFX supervisor Jason Greenblum.
Jumanji: the next level comes to Digital March 3 and 4K Ultra HDR, Blu-ray and DVD March 17. This action-adventure comedy was directed by Jake Kasdan, with Mark Breakspear serving as client-side VFX Supervisor, and VFX Supervisor Jason Greenblum, Animation Supervisor Craig McPherson and VFX Producer Doug Oddy leading the Sony Picture Imageworks’ (SPI) VFX team.
Jumanji: the next level , grossed over $700 million at the global box office, and it brings the fan-favorites back into the game, along with Jumanji newcomers Awkwafina (The Farewell), Rory McCann (Game of Thrones) with Danny Glover (Sorry to Bother You) and Danny DeVito (Dumbo).
As seen in the video above the team at SPI extensively used their in-house tool Spout for the film. Sprout is an SPI proprietary Maya-based tool for hand-dressing digital environments with large quantities of high-resolution assets like trees, plants and rocks. It was developed at SPI to address the need for an interactive artist-friendly tool that was fully integrated into SPI’s existing pipeline.
Prior to the development of Sprout, environment dressing at SPI was done primarily in Houdini or procedurally at render-time and was thus the province of FX TDs. In Sprout, artists can load any asset and quickly paint instances onto any other geometry using a brush paradigm familiar to anyone who has used Photoshop. Sophisticated lightweight OpenGL representations keep performance nimble, and all instances remain fully editable by the artist to allow for highly art-directed environment dressing. Sprout has made environment dressing at SPI available to a larger variety of artists. It was also used for photoreal jungle environments for the first Jumanji film.
VFX sup. Mark Breakspear discussed the interactive use of Sprout and its use in the film the Kingsman at fxguide here.
Jumanji: the next level
Jumanji: the next level catches up with Spencer (Alex Wolff), Fridge (Ser’Darius Blain), Martha (Morgan Turner) and Bethany (Madison Iseman) three years after their first adventure in Jumanji’s mystical video game world. When Spencer goes missing inside the game ahead of the group’s planned reunion from college, his friends, along with his grandfather (Danny DeVito) and his grandfather’s friend (Danny Glover), once again inhabit the avatars of Dr. Bravestone (Dwayne Johnson), “Mouse” Finbar (Kevin Hart), Professor Sheldon Oberon (Jack Black) and Ruby Roundhouse (Karen Gillan) to rescue him. As they return to Jumanji, they discover that nothing is as they expect.
See our original fxguide story on Jumanji: the next level with production VFX Sup Mark Breakspear here.
The bonus materials for Jumanji: the next level include a gag reel, several behind-the-scenes featurettes, in-depth VFX scene breakdowns, and a brand new jingle. The 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray, and DVD also include a fully interactive map that employs Augmented Reality (AR) to bring Jumanji to life via smartphone. The experience provides up to ten minutes of gameplay and allows users to create their own 8-bit Avatar, navigate a series of mini-games.
Jumanji: the next level has a runtime of approximately 123 minutes and is rated PG-13. The ‘IMAX Enhanced 4K Ultra HDTM’ edition features digitally remastered content presented with High Dynamic Range (HDR) and DTS:X audio for a more immersive at-home entertainment experience.
Blu-ray and Digital Bonus Materials
• Scene Breakdown: Ostrich Chase: Jump in your dune buggy and go inside the epic ostrich chase scene as the filmmakers and visual effects team breakdown the creation of this memorable scene.
• Scene Breakdown: Mandrill Bridges: Moving rope bridges, giant mandrills and incredible stunt work make the mandrills attack one of the most adrenaline pack parts of this film. In this scene breakdown, see how they pulled it off.
• VFX Pre-Vis: Zeppelin Battle: A detailed rundown of the visual effects pre-visualization reel and the final picture breakdown of the Zeppelin battle.
• VFX Pre-Vis: Ostrich Chase: A progression from pre-visualization to the finished scene in a side by side comparison of the ostrich chase.
Plus
• Gag Reel
• Rhys Darby Wants To Jingle: How do you top Jack Black and Nick Jonas’s unforgettable theme song for the first one? Everyone’s favorite Non-Player Character (NPC), Rhys Darby takes it to the next, next level.
• Body Swapping: Snapping Into Character: A look at the avatar role swapping with new characters and hilarious performances.”
• Back Together: Reuniting the Cast• Level Up: Making Jumanji: The Next Level: A behind the scenes with the cast and crew as they take Jumanji to the Next Level.
• Awkwafina Cat Burglar: “To prepare for her roles as pickpocket, Ming Fleetwood, superstar Awkwafina got a little too method behind the scenes”.
• NPC Confessions: Jurgen The Brutal: “Being the bad guy isn’t all glory. Jurgen The Brutal gets real in this candid confessional”.
• Grow Up: Danny DeVito and Danny Glover help Dwayne Johnson and Kevin Hart get in touch with their inner grumpy old men.
• Telenovela: Kevin Hart gets lost in translation.
